Best Buy and Target bail on CD audio

[jserraglio]

https://www.google.com/amp/www.latimes. ... utType=amp

[Lance]

I just cannot believe the CD market — especially for classical music — is going to dry up any time soon. Places like Amazon and MDT have no doubt hurt the retail CD business. I really cannot remember the last time I looked for a CD in any local store. I was a big buyer of LPs in the days of Sam Goody, especially when they ran their 50% to 60% discount sales, and LPs were then $5.98 or $6.98. As I have mentioned before on these boards, I was just a bit slow adapting to the CD technology until a friend played me an RCA disc of 78-rpm transfers of music performed by Benny Goodman! I could not believe the sound quality. If CDs do go down the pike, I would be disappointed, but I already have so much available with the world's greatest artists, I might be able to put a little more money in the bank. As long as we can buy quality CD players, it might not be so bad. I don't do streaming, though any new CDs from Amazon can be downloaded for free if you buy the CD. I have not done any of that yet (and don't expect to). While major labels are reissuing much of their back catalogue in mega-boxed sets available very inexpensively, the only cost they absorb is the packaging and manufacturing of the product itself. Inasmuch as most of the best-known artists are deceased, it's a rare exception if they have to continue to pay royalties. Companies such as CPO, Divine Art and countless others are stilling making CDs available of mostly neglected repertoire.

[maestrob]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Nothing will "replace" the CD for classical music consumers, who have golden ears and demand the ultimate in sound quality that's provided by CDs. I'm proud of my collection, do NOT do downloads, and expect to access a great CD selection of classical titles for many years to come. Amazon operates on the "long tail" theory of marketing: just look for any title and you'll probably find a copy of it there, for example, in spite of all the naysayers. Used CDs are a great bargain right now, but there are plenty of new copies as well.

That said, I grab all the megaboxes my shelves can hold at present.

[jserraglio]

I grab all the megaboxes my shelves can hold at present.

$122.77 for 75 discs delivered from Deutschland
https://www.amazon.de/Rudolf-Serkin-Com ... e+complete

[maestrob]

Wow! Now THAT's a bargain! I'll have to wait a bit, but not too long!

[John F]

Who would go to a store like Target or Best Buy to get a recording? Anyway, people have long since stopped buying physical audio recordings in stores, that's why there are no record stores any more. What would really be alarming is if people stop buying sound recordings in any form, CD or LP or download, which would signal the end of recorded music. That would really be alarming, but I haven't seen any numbers to suggest that people no longer want or need to listen to music.

[jserraglio]

Who would go to a store like Target or Best Buy to get a recording?

I would and did. What it lacked in chic, Best Buy made up for with a wide-ranging selection and good prices. I bought dozens of classical CDs from them, including some off-the-beaten-track American composers like Bernard Herrmann on Bay Cities and Unicorn and David Diamond and Howard Hanson on Delos.

Need it be said that people will still want to listen to music long after the annals of the compact disc have closed?

[karlhenning]

Need it be said that people will still want to listen to music long after the annals of the compact disc have closed?

I guess I'll keep writing, in case 8)

Cheers,
~k.

[IcedNote]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Nothing will "replace" the CD for classical music consumers, who have golden ears and demand the ultimate in sound quality that's provided by CDs.

Careful, good sir! Digital downloads can/do/will-continue-to match and, indeed, surpass CD audio quality. It's all digital anyway. So it's really a matter of how listeners purchase the music, not the quality of the recording. Downloading/streaming is an unstoppable force, precisely because you don't have to give up the audio quality if you wish. (The only limiting factor is the size of your harddrive, memory card, etc. since better quality files take up more digital space.)

-G

[maestrob]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Nothing will "replace" the CD for classical music consumers, who have golden ears and demand the ultimate in sound quality that's provided by CDs.

Careful, good sir! Digital downloads can/do/will-continue-to match and, indeed, surpass CD audio quality. It's all digital anyway. So it's really a matter of how listeners purchase the music, not the quality of the recording. Downloading/streaming is an unstoppable force, precisely because you don't have to give up the audio quality if you wish. (The only limiting factor is the size of your harddrive, memory card, etc. since better quality files take up more digital space.)

-G

Hi, Garrett!

I'm just an old fuddy-duddy, , and I insist that there will always be customers for a physical product, just as there continue to be libraries (both private and public) that feature hardcover books in spite of Kindle. Digital downloads may have, in some cases, equal sound quality, but high quality is not yet embraced by amazon, and the feel of a CD in your hand while reading the enclosed booklet for information about the recording is an ultimate joy for me. When amazon starts offering lossless downloads, or even just .wav files, that will be an improvement over their current VBR .mp3 files, that's true, but I still want a professionally made physical product that I can revisit time and time again.

Over the years, every technological breakthrough in media has been hailed as a deathblow to previous formats, yet vinyl is staging a comeback, TV never replaced the movie theater, paperback books have not replaced hardcover best-sellers, and live shows on Broadway continue to prosper in spite of digital recordings and DVDs.